Video: Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA04) Says “[Trump’s] priorities are all wrong – and as a result, the American people are suffering.”

I missed Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA04)’s appearance this past Sunday on MSNOW, but she had a lot of interesting stuff to say; see below for video and highlights.

• “I mean, [Trump’s] priorities are all wrong and as a result, the American people are suffering. I have spent the last month in my district talking to voters in rural, urban, and suburban parts of my district. They are all struggling. Whether it is paying for health care, groceries, housing, child care, you name it. They are literally having to decide which of my bills am I going to pay this month. you have people dying from heat because they can’t afford to pay their electric bills. And  meanwhile, he’s putting his face on everything, gilding the White House with this goddy goal overlay putting gold statues up in Washington, putting his face on everything from passports to buildings. And when he’s asked about this cost of living crisis, he says, ‘Well, I don’t I don’t think about that.’…it is Republicans’ fault. It is the Big Ugly Law that went into effect a year ago that stripped health care away from millions of people and is about to strip health care away from more. The largest cuts to health care and food assistance in American history. The war in Iran that has made gas prices go up. His war on clean and renewable energy that has taken projects offline that would have put more energy on the grid to meet exploding demand. His tariffs that have raised the prices of everything from, you know, groceries to housing to toys to school supplies. That is a direct response to his policies. And then on top of that, if you could afford the food, you don’t know what to eat because everything is making people sick because of the cuts that he made to the FDA, to HHS.  And so all of this is a direct result of the Trump administration, DOGE, and Republicans that enabled him through that Big Ugly Law last year.”
• “…you know what exploded the debt? Again, the Big Ugly Law. Because in that bill, It included increasing the debt to pay for a tax cut for billionaires and now a trillionaire. not to help the American people, not to lower the costs of everything, but to help his friends, I don’t know, buy another boat. So, let’s talk about that. I don’t know what their plan is because they have offered no plan to lower gas prices, lower grocery bills, lower health care. Everything they have done is increase the cost of everything. So, I don’t know what their plan is other than to try to gaslight the American people into thinking that everything is fine. But everything is not fine. People are hurting.”
• ” I will remind you that  the last time that we decreased the debt and the last time we had a balanced budget was when we had we had Democratic presidents Clinton…and we got pretty close under President Obama…and then what happened? Republicans came in and exploded it because they are more interested in giving tax breaks to millionaires, billionaires, and trillionaires than investing in the American people, investing in infrastructure and things that actually improve the quality of life for people.”
• “…the demand for electric vehicles was in part because people wanted to get away from using gas, which would lower demand for gas and prices are based on supply and demand. So, part of the problem is right now you’ve got this war in Iran that the president bumbled into with no plan of how to get us out. I remind everybody, the straight hormones was open when this war began. And now because there’s less access to foreign oil, because he has declared war on anything other than fossil fuel energy or transportation, then you have more demand for gas and less supply. So what Democrats are going to do, first of all, we need to end this war in Iran that we never should have started to begin with. And we need to make sure that we are meeting our energy needs with the fastest, cleanest, cheapest fuel that we can get on the electric grid that we can get in our cars and make sure that we continue this transition, which was popular, which the American people wanted to do anyway, and which ultimately costs less than fossil fuel-based transportation and energy.”
• “…it is appalling that this president would send our sailors and our troops in harm’s way for for for no apparent reason and then not care about the conditions that they’re serving in. And we, you know, I used to be on the Armed Serve Committee and we spent a lot of time trying to improve the quality of life for our service members and particularly address mental health issues that was leading sailors to commit suicide in record numbers. Because that’s what happens when you are stuck in these conditions for long periods of time. It affects your mental health. And the fact that you can’t be bothered to even know what conditions they’re in or even show any kind of sympathy for it. I don’t know whether he’s being lied to or kept in the dark by his Secretary of Defense who is cosplaying at being a commander. Or if he just doesn’t care and is that callous, but our service members and their families deserve better.”